The present invention relates to brand architectures, and more specifically, to an automated brand architecture administration system.
A brand name is a name or symbol used to identify a seller""s goods or services, and to differentiate them from those of competitors. Because a brand name identifies a product""s or service""s sourcexe2x80x94protecting against competitors who may attempt to market similar goods or servicesxe2x80x94companies have an incentive to invest in the quality, consistency, and imagery of their brands.
In the prior art, often there was no unified method to manage brand names within a company. In one prior art system, trademark counsel kept a list of trademarks and trademark filings for the purposes of keeping trademarks up-to-date and renewing them. Product managers in the organization created new products and potential names for them. The product managers then requested a search for trademark availability of the names. Other companies did not do any searching, causing the companies to risk being sued for trademark infringement.
Generally, in the prior art, organizations had no marketing or strategic central determiner for whether a product needed a name or whether the name chosen by the product manager was appropriate. Furthermore, each time an additional product or service was created the trademark counsel and product manager had to individually process the proposed name.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to reduce the complexity of administering a company""s brand names.
A method of automatically managing and maintaining a brand architecture is described. The method comprises displaying a navigable brand-architecture chart. The method further comprises helping users identify the appropriate, approved location of the desired name on the brand architecture chart. The method further includes testing the name against rules, to see whether the name fits the criteria. If the new name fits criteria, for one embodiment the proposed name is automatically sent to an approver, or to a legal department for approval. For another embodiment, the brand architecture chart is automatically updated with the new name.
For one embodiment, if the name does not fit the criteria, an appeal process to higher tier managers may be automatically triggered. For one embodiment a request for additional conforming name candidates is generated and sent to the appropriate party or parties.